The present invention is directed toward a method and apparatus for improving the accuracy and time and to verify the status of automobiles parked in a commercial or controlled parking facility. The present invention implements a system that provides both on site and remote access to pertinent and current information relating to automobiles parked in the commercial or controlled parking facility.
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for verifying information relating to automobiles parked in a commercial or controlled parking facility. There are a variety of known methods and apparatus for checking information related to parked cars. However, these methods and apparatus present several problems that the present invention seeks to overcome.
Many cities and towns throughout the world are overpopulated and are very limited in space. Also, many parking areas are regulated to provide usage only for approved automobiles, such as employees or residents. For example, New York City is a small island yet it has over eight million residents and millions more visit the city each year. Due to the large population of these cities, there is a very limited number of public parking spaces. As a result, many people choose to park their vehicles in commercial parking facilities. Others park their vehicles in parking facilities because they are convenient and safe. Commercial parking facilities permit the public to park their vehicles in their space for a predetermined fee. Generally speaking, there are two types of customers who park their automobiles in commercial parking facilities. The first is xe2x80x9ctransient parkersxe2x80x9d who pay by the hour to park their automobile. The second is regular customers who park for a longer term, and pay a fixed rate for every week, month or year. Thousands of regular customers park their automobiles in commercial facilities. Many people also park in non-commercial and/or regulated parking facilities. The cars in such facilities are often authorized to park in specific spaces and are allowed a specific number of spaces. Such authorization may be based on employment or residency that could periodically change. Accordingly, the facility must regulate these changes.
Most of the parking facilities maintain records for their accounts. It is imperative that the parking facility maintains information relating to each monthly account""s automobile make, model, color, license plate number, owner, phone number, account balances and the space in which it is parked. Maintaining accurate records of this information can be a daunting task but is nonetheless necessary to ensure optimal efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Prior systems utilize sequential stickers and labels that are referenced to printed lists containing this information. Under these prior systems, a parking facility employee checks the parking facility each day to ensure that only the vehicles paying to park in the facility are actually parked there. Parking facility employee(s) check the facility by examining each car and the information on the list. An employee and/or supervisor periodically checks the facility to verify that each car parked in the facility corresponds to a printed monthly list. Similarly, checks of transiently parked vehicles are performed to verify that they have been issued tickets and determine the time the automobile entered the facility. This task is time consuming because the vehicle information must be read from a printed list and updates are recorded by hand. This is a daunting task to complete in large garages. However, the checking process is necessary to ensure that all automobiles present in a parking facility are accounted for and permitted to park there.
The prior systems are inefficient, time consuming and often result in inaccurate information due to human error. Furthermore, parking facility employees occasionally permit vehicles to improperly park in the facility (i.e., they do not charge a person to park his vehicle there). This situation results in the loss of revenue or improper usage of allotted spaces. Furthermore, issues of liability may arise. There is a long felt need for an efficient and accurate method and apparatus for checking a commercial or controlled parking facility. The present invention solves this long felt need.
There are other known methods and apparatus relating to maintaining and checking information relating to automobiles parked in a commercial facility.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,070 to Bezin et al. discloses a fee system for managing paid for vehicle parking by means of a magnetic card. The system comprises a parking terminal, a card reader, a portable terminal carried by a parking checker and a card and label to be attached to the windshield of a parked vehicle. In this system, the driver of the vehicle enters information into a parking terminal for purposes of payment. A checker examines the vehicle information to verify that the parked vehicle has paid to park in this space. This is problematic because the prior art does not contemplate managing vehicle information for automobile owners who pay a fixed rate to park regularly in the parking facility and/or integrates with various fee systems. Unlike the present invention, the driver of the vehicle or parking facility employee is required to enter information each time he parks his car in the facility. As a result, checking status information for regularly parked vehicles (or monthly accounts) utilizing this method would still be extremely time consuming and does not reflect updated account information. Furthermore, the prior does not interface with other fee systems to verify the automobile""s status. As will be seen from the description herein, the present invention avoids the problems of Bezin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,247 discloses a parking fee system, control device and identification means. This system is also problematic because it requires active participation by the driver of the vehicle and fails to manage account information efficiently. As a result, this system would be highly inefficient and time consuming for the purposes of checking information relating to regularly parked vehicles.
While the known methods and apparatus are of interest, they do not address the particular need to quickly and efficiently check information relating to automobiles regularly parked in a commercial or controlled parking facility, display current account receivables information (i.e., whether the automobile is past due 3 months), verify existing fee systems, and monitor the parkers possible discrepancies, including, change of car, substitute car, second car is present, and current approval status.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus for checking and verifying the status of automobiles parked in a parking facility comprising: a host computer having a first database, said host having a first linking means for transferring and receiving information in said database; said first database comprising pertinent information relating to vehicles parked in the parking facility; identification means to be affixed to the automobiles parked in the parking facility; a least one portable unit for checking the parking facility; said portable means having a second linking means for transferring receiving information; and a sub-database, said sub-database comprising information relevant to checking the parking facility.
The present invention is also directed to method for checking and verifying the status of automobiles parked in a parking facility comprising the steps of: maintaining a first database on a host computer, said first database having pertinent information relating the automobiles parked in the parking facility; maintaining a second database on a verification computer, said second database comprising only information relevant to checking the parking facility; affixing an identification means to the automobiles parked in the parking facility; transferring said first database to said verification computer; selecting and organizing, from first database, information relevant to checking a parking facility; entering said relevant information into said second database; transferring said second database to a portable unit at the parking facility to be checked; checking said parking facility with said portable unit, wherein said portable unit relates said identification means with said pertinent information; verifying and storing on said portable unit the status of each automobile parked in the parking facility: updating and organizing results of said checking of the parking facility; sending said results of said check to said verification computer; entering said results of said check into said verification computer; and taking appropriate action with respect to delinquent cars.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for efficient verification of information relating to automobiles parked in a commercial or controlled parking facility.
It is another object of the present invention to efficiently determine whether an automobile is legitimately parked in a parking facility.
It is another object of the present invention to efficiently determine whether the account for each parked automobile is past due and whether action should be taken.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for interfacing vehicle information stored on a host computer database with on premise information that could be controlled remotely.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for maximizing the management and organization of a commercial or controlled parking facility.
It is another object of the present invention to integrate parking system with the operation of a fee computer and thus provide a double check for the transient cars as well monthly accounts.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus that overcomes the problems of the prior art.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the foregoing description.